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FLA Newsletter Issue16 3 PDF
FLA Newsletter Issue16 3 PDF
What We Do
The efforts of many emerging
nations to protect biodiversity are
undermined by various forms of
illegal loggingfelling of trees in
contravention of national and local
laws. To address these challenges,
the World Resources Institute
(WRI) and the Environmental
Investigation Agency (EIA) launched
the Forest Legality Alliance in 2010
with support from the U.S. Agency
for International Development
(USAID) and private donors. The
Alliance is an international, multi-
Since our last newsletter, we received the wonderful news from USAID that support for the Alliance will
continue through 2016. The FLA team has since been busy planning goals and activities for the next two
years, largely based on feedback that weve heard over the past few years and, more recently, from the
stakeholder survey that many of you participated in (thank you!). You will hear about these exciting
new plans, as well as the survey results, at the next FLA meeting. We continue to welcome input and
feedback from you.
The next FLA meeting will be held on January 27-28, 2015 and will have a particular focus on challenges
in implementing forest legality verification in China. Additionally, we are planning the following
sessions:
A panel discussion with representatives from the private sector on how timber legality regulations,
such as the Lacey Act, or the EUTR, apply to timber sourced from forests illegally converted to
commercial agricultural production.
Breakout sessions that will provide members a chance to discuss topics in depth.
A panel exploring emerging innovative supply chain management and forest cover monitoring
tools.
Updates from FLAs partners in the United States and other countries.
Updates on our current activities and strategy for the second phase of the Forest Legality Alliance.
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Issue 16
A draft agenda and logistical details about the meeting are available online. Final agenda and teleconferencing details will be sent out and posted online soon. If you have anything you would like to see
discussed at the meeting, and if you have any suggestions for a topic for the breakout sessions, please
let us know.
For this issue of the newsletter, we highlight some of the work that our partners have been working on
to advance different technologies for wood identification and tracking.
We are always looking for guest contributors to the newsletterif your company or organization has a
useful new tool, publication, or event that may be of interest to members, please let us know.
All the best,
Newsletter
Special Edition: Spotlight on Technology
This issue of the Forest Legality Alliance newsletter will highlight some of the projects that our partners are working on to advance
different technologies for wood identification and tracking, in order to enable wider application by industry and governments.
Trained to fight illegal logging Global genetics movement gathers pace with DNA sampling
training in Africa; Latin America next
By Goh Soo Lin, DoubleHelix Tracking Technologies
In December 2014, participants from various African countries came
together for a timber DNA sampling training session held in Douala,
Cameroon. This training session is the first of a series, as part of the
Large Scale Project on DNA-based Verification of Timber Origin, led by
the Thnen Institute of Forest Genetics, based in Hamburg, Germany.
In this latest genetic infrastructure project, 14 vital species of
timber that are harvested and produced in 8 African countries and
4 Latin American countries will be sampled and mapped. The project
is funded by the German Federal government for a total of US$4.4
million (3.6 million).
Capacity building
The project will build capacity to allow claims about the species
and origin of timber and timber products to be scientifically proven,
thereby facilitating access to premium markets such as Europe and
the USA.
The training is helping to build capacity in response to increasing
global demand for genetic services. I have people from different
countries coming to ask me about DNA testing and sampling, said
Mr. Germain Yene, Director of Gersyn Services, a local project partner
in Cameroon who helped to organize the sampling training session
there.
Thnen is leading this project and aims to support at least one
reference lab each in Africa and Latin America with equipment and
A global movement
Genetic marker databases already exist, or are in the process of
being developed, for over 50 timber species. White oak already
has a well-established database of genetic reference information
and is now being used as a reliable way of securing supply chains.
Once developed, genetic maps can be most readily applied to curb
illegal logging, but will find other applications, such as detecting
replacement of wood with species of similar appearance but of
inferior quality.
Worldwide, more than US$11.7 million is being invested into genetic
infrastructure projects. Examples include mapping of ip in Brazil,
sampling of oak and larch in the Russian Far East and fingerprinting
tropical hardwood species in the Mekong Region. More projects to
create genetic maps for timber species are slated for 2015, allowing
unprecedented insight into the origin and composition of many types
of wood products and leaving no room for illegal timber.
WWF Germany applies a suite of technologies to check species and origin claims
By Johannes Zahnen, WWF Germany
In 2004, WWF Germany learned for the first time from a newspaper
article about the stable isotope method used to prove that the
declared origin of olive oil was false. WWF contacted the laboratory
and discovered that until that time, it had never worked with wood
products, only with the food sector. Ten years and several projects
later, the stable isotope method is now one of the most promising
technologies for verifying the declared origin of wood.
In 2008, the United States included wood into the Lacey Act and in
2013, the EU-Timber Regulation (EUTR) came into action. Similar
statutory rules were established in Australia. The intention of these
regulations is to prohibit illegal timber from entering markets. WWF
Germany seeks to bolster the enforcement of these regulations with
forensic methods. The knowledge about the species or the origin
of timber is not entirely sufficient, but a minimum pre-condition to
January 2015
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Newsletter
Using wood anatomy and stable isotopes to test garden
furniture
In 2013, WWF purchased and tested ten samples of products from
a furniture store in Germany. The laboratories discovered that five
of the samples had incorrect species labels, and one product was
produced from Siberian oak a high-risk timber species. Within the
set of mislabeled products, the laboratories identified several highly
critical species.
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Newsletter
Recent Publications
Sustainable Procurement Guide 3.2 Released
With continued support from the World
Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD), we released Version
3.2 of Sustainable Procurement of Wood and
Paper-based Products: Guide and Resource
Kit earlier this month. This version features
updates to the climate change and fresh and
recycled fiber chapters, and to the Guide to
the Guides section.
The guide can be found at www.sustainableforestproducts.org.
This study analyzes monthly U.S. import data on tropical lumber and
hardwood plywood quantity and unit value to estimate the impact
of the Lacey Act Amendment on import prices and quantities.
Statistical models show double-digit percentage increases in prices
and decreases in quantities of tropical lumber imports from Bolivia,
Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Peru.
In the News
Ghana joins Indonesia, Cameroon, and Liberia in
electronically tagging trees
On April 1st, 2014, Myanmar banned the export of all raw logs.
Admitting that the ban hasnt yet reduced illegal trade in timber,
the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry now plans
to beef up its inspection teams and checkpoints along well-known
smuggling routes to China.
Upcoming Events
National Association of Music Merchants Show
January 22-25, 2015; Anaheim, California, USA
The FLA newsletter hosts guest writers in every issue. If you are interested in contributing to our next newsletter with information and stories concerning
illegal logging, the Lacey Act, international forest policies, or any other related issues, please contact Loretta Cheung at LCheung@wri.org.
If you are interested in learning more about our organization, becoming a FLA member and continuing to receive this newsletter, please contact Jonathan
Mason at JMason@wri.org or visit http://www.forestlegality.org/about/members.
January 2015
Issue 16